


Halloween

by miera



Series: Langford University [3]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Halloween Costumes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 23:42:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21261557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miera/pseuds/miera
Summary: Halloween-themed fluff/smut for Langford U. After Elizabeth and John are living together, Janet throws the annual Langford U faculty Halloween party. Originally published 10/31/2007.





	Halloween

**Author's Note:**

> Set after [Pedagogy](http://community.livejournal.com/langford_u/14205.html) but before [Anniversaries](http://community.livejournal.com/langford_u/17827.html)

On the morning of October 31st, Dr. John Sheppard's Applied Stats I class was a little thrown when their professor entered the classroom. He busied himself with the overhead machine, not really noticing the staring and whispers until one of the juniors raised a hand and asked, "Um, Dr. Sheppard?"

The man in front of the class looked up. He was wearing tall boots, what looked like leather pants and a white shirt that hung loosely around his torso. It was unbuttoned a little, something the three female students in the room noticed immediately. Over one shoulder and his chest was a leather belt of some kind, and he had a knife sheath strapped to one thigh. On his head, a red bandanna was tied over his usually messy hair.

"Yes?" John asked the room innocently.

***

In one of the classrooms of the law building at 2pm the same day, Dr. Elizabeth Weir, the first female dean of Langford's Law School, swept in and sat down just before her third year Seminar on International Law started.

Several of the students did a double take. Dr. Weir was wearing a large, pointed black hat on her head, and a black cape around her shoulders.

She caught them staring and quirked an eyebrow at them. "Oh, like you haven't all thought it before," she said wryly.

***

Elizabeth had known John was a bit of a Halloween fanatic since the first year his office was moved into the Law Building and a big cutout of a ghost had appeared on his door in October. That she even owned the black witch's hat was due to his nagging. She still remembered two years ago, the smug look on his face when he wandered into her office to find one of those plastic pumpkins kids used for trick or treating on her desk.

The smug look had lasted only until he got a look inside the pumpkin and found it full of mini Snickers bars. They'd had a ridiculous, long and incredibly silly argument a couple weeks before about the merits of Snickers versus Milky Way. She gave him points for obstinacy even though her well-reasoned defense of Snickers had clearly won the argument on merit.

She only bought the stupid pumpkin because she was in the grocery store late after work one night and debating whether she needed more candy at home. She'd almost run out the year before, and one of the bags of Reese's peanut butter cups was pretty much gone. She'd noticed the pumpkins up on the top shelf and decided for purely mature reasons to show John she did _so_ have holiday spirit.

But seeing him at the office was a very different experience from living with the man for the 30 days prior to Halloween. She'd drawn the line on any decorations that appeared to replicate human body parts (brains, eyeballs, severed hands which had always creeped her out to an irrational degree). Instead, there were two fake tombstones in the yard of their house. A full-size skeleton (John called him Bob) was hanging on the front door. The porch was covered in fake cobwebs and plastic bats hanging from the ceiling. John had even unearthed from his boxes one of those goofy CDs that played scary music and sound effects. It was a far cry from her usual single uncarved pumpkin.

They had two pumpkins now, which they carved a few days before Halloween. She took charge of separating the seeds from the goupy innards, washing and spreading them to dry overnight for toasting, while John used his stronger muscles to scrape out the rest of the insides. She printed out a face pattern from her computer and used it to make little holes on the surface before she carved the actual pumpkin. John, being John, did his more freestyle. When it was over, she was just grateful there hadn't been any significant blood loss.

Her pumpkin was kind of squat and wide and John's a bit taller and thinner. She immediately christened them Bert and Ernie. John pretended not to like that, but she was pretty sure he was just annoyed he didn't think of it first.

***

Since Halloween was on a weeknight, Janet's annual Halloween party was on the Saturday before. For the last few years, Elizabeth had just been putting on her black hat and cape. Of course, most of the other faculty attending the party usually went whole hog, including John. Last year he'd gone as Han Solo, and she heard one too many jokes about why she wasn't dressed as Princess Leia. Given that they hadn't even started dating until just before last Christmas, it had been more than a little annoying. Now she was kind of glad John never wore the same costume two years in a row. If John wanted to see her in that gold bikini... well, it wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility, but she wasn't doing it in public.

This year he was pretty excited about his pirate costume, though he hadn't opted to try for the eye patch and the fake parrot on his shoulder.

Elizabeth surveyed herself in the bathroom mirror one last time. She'd kept her costume secret from John all month, which hadn't been an easy feat. The puppy face he turned on her was bad enough, but now that they were sleeping together, he had far too many methods at his disposal to coax her into complying with just about anything.

When she finally stepped out into the bedroom, though, and John's jaw dropped, it was worth the tickling that had been the punishment for her resistance to his charms.

His eyes started up her body from the knee-high, black leather boots. They laced up the front and while he'd seen them before, he hadn't seen them coupled with the tight black pants that had been in the back of her closet for years. She hadn't been able to find a white pirate shirt, but the loose red blouse with the deep v-neck worked just fine. Her hair was pulled back into a braid under her costume-store hat, and wrapped around her waist was a scarf. It was so long it wound around her twice before she knotted it, just above the hilt of the fake sword.

Feet apart, she put her hands on her hips and regarded her fellow pirate, who was looking distinctly unmenacing at the moment. In fact, she knew that his current expression was the one he got when he was vainly trying to keep all his blood from dropping into his pants.

She didn't say anything, just waited. John finally shook himself, physically, like a dog getting water out of its ears. He couldn't tear his eyes away from her body, though. She just grinned, sauntering towards him (which wasn't easy with the sword banging into her hip) and made a tiny adjustment to the beaded necklace he had around his throat.

John's hands went to her hips automatically and she watched as he licked his lips. "Lizabeth, how badly do you really want to go to this party?" he asked, a little breathlessly.

She let her hands drift down over his chest slowly before pulling away. "Janet will kill us if we don't show up."

"Right." He took another deep breath. "I'm only asking because I didn't think you'd want to go out and flaunt the fact that you stole my costume idea," he added, attempting to smirk. He still looked a bit too mind-whacked to pull it off.

"I prefer to consider it an homage," she retorted, going downstairs.

***

Janet's house was overflowing with people. It seemed like half the faculty of Langford was at the party.

John and Jack and a bunch of other people had been at Janet's all Saturday afternoon helping her decorate. The entire downstairs of the house was covered in fake cobwebs, fake spiders, pumpkins and various weird decorations, with black and purple lights dimming the rooms. Janet had stopped using open candles after an incident a few years earlier involving Sam, Jonas and an open flame that had ended with the fire marshal chastising the faculty at the party about setting a bad example to the students.

Elizabeth stuck with drinking wine, not trusting the punch having seen Jack dangerously close to the bowl. She grabbed a handful of potato chips from the table and wound her way through the party.

Jack, Daniel, Sam and Teal'c were dressed as Musketeers. Elizabeth wondered what kind of bribery had been involved on that one. Daniel was notoriously annoying when it came to historical costumes and their inaccuracies.

Ironically, Janet was dressed as Napoleon.

She grinned to herself, overhearing Dr. Zelenka explaining that he had suggested he and Rodney attend as Jekyll and Hyde (Radek playing the good one, of course). Rodney hadn't gone for it. Rodney, instead, was Frankenstein. Radek was a vampire, presumably Dracula, since Carson Beckett was a mummy. An odd trio, those three.

She spotted John, in an animated discussion of either flying or possibly sports. It was hard to tell, even with the enthusiastic hand gestures. She allowed herself a moment to admire the way the puffy shirt highlighted his body. The pants curving over his cute butt helped.

It was just sad, really, that she'd been sleeping with him for almost a full year and she was still standing there at a party surrounded by all her friends and colleagues and thinking of ways to get him alone. She was no better than John about this. Then again, she really didn't want it to wear off either.

Their little emperor sidled up to Elizabeth, "Avast, matey."

Elizabeth grinned down at Janet. "L'empereur."

Janet chuckled, taking a sip of the punch. "So, matching costumes? Isn't that a little too precious for your style?"

Elizabeth laughed. "It was more about shutting him up. If I'd dragged that witch costume out again, I wouldn't have heard the end of it until Christmas."

"Ah, so this year..."

"This year it's been all about the 'do you really want to go?' and 'how soon can we leave?' and so forth."

Janet raised her cup. "To men and their easily persuaded hormones."

They clinked glasses, but the sound was overshadowed by something in the other room getting knocked over. Rodney could be heard shouting "Sorry!" loudly and Janet dove into the crowd to make sure nothing was on fire.

In the confusion, Elizabeth slipped up to John and took his hand. "Come with me."

They managed to get upstairs without being seen. There was a bathroom on the first floor that everyone generally used during the party, but there was another one upstairs and as Elizabeth had hoped, it was currently empty.

John looked puzzled when she pulled him into the bathroom, then less so when she laid a hand against his chest, pushing his back against the door. She locked the door and then grabbed him and hauled him into a kiss. Just enough to take the edge off for the rest of the evening, really, that was all she intended.

John groaned against her mouth, his hands sliding down to cup her ass as he kissed her back. Some part of Elizabeth's mind was a little appalled. A woman of her age dragging her boyfriend off to make out in a bathroom during a party was embarrassing.

But her body reminded her how hot John looked in that shirt and those pants and when his fingers kneaded her flesh and his tongue did that indescribable thing to her mouth she thought, "Well, you only live once." There had been a distinct lack of boyfriend-pouncing at parties when she had been a horny teenager. She was just making up for lost time.

Besides, he was all warm and solid pressed against her like this, and when one of his hands knocked her hat off in his urgent fumbling to get a hand under her shirt, she smiled against his mouth. Who could resist this?

She caressed his neck and collarbone, trailing the tips of her fingers along the thin skin. John kissed her even more frantically; long, wet kisses that stole her breath and made her lightheaded and his thumb was rubbing under her bra, all of it making her aroused as hell. And it wasn't just her. The way their bodies were rubbing together was producing a prominent reaction in him that the tight pants couldn't conceal.

She thought to pull away before it got too far, but as soon as she saw John's eyes, she realized they'd probably already passed that point. Those gorgeous hazel eyes of his were dark and hot, looking down at her while an evil, delicious smirk crossed his lips. He used his larger body and backed her up against the sink. Pinned there by his weight, she tried weakly to protest when he nuzzled her shirt collar aside and sucked on the sensitive skin just below her collarbone.

"John, we should... oh God, be careful!" she whispered as his teeth scraped. A bolt of pure lust shot through her even as she was thinking of walking out of the bathroom with a mark from him plainly visible on her skin.

"Too late for careful, Elizabeth," he drawled lowly. She felt something tug at her waist and glanced down to see him unknotting her scarf. He slid the silky material off of her hips and that just had no right to feel that incredible through a whole separate layer of clothes. Naked, maybe...

Oh boy. Sometimes she could swear John could read her mind and right now, the look he was giving her told her he knew exactly what she was thinking. He draped the scarf around her neck, using the tension in it to pull her into another kiss. "We'll do that later," he murmured against her mouth. She melted as her imagination raced over the many possibilities _that_ conjured.

Then his hands grabbed the top of her pants and tugged them down.

"John-" she started to protest again, trying to keep her voice down in case anyone was outside, but he was pressing light, nibbling little kisses to her lips and damn it, he knew what that did to her.

He growled at her protests, "You started this, Lizabeth." His hand slid in between her thighs and her legs moved apart without thought. She clutched at his shoulders, biting back a moan. God, this was insane and ridiculously fucking _hot_ and someone was going to figure out what they were doing in here and it would be all over the school by Monday. Then John's fingers moved just exactly right and she didn't care who found out as long as... "Jesus, don't stop," she begged.

"Never." His breathing was ragged too. But the next moment he bit her ear and muttered, "I can't believe we're doing this."

She laughed and gasped as her body flushed and tightened further. "Me either." She managed to get a hand down and press her palm against the bulge in his pants.

He gulped for air and whispered, "Shit. We should've gone into the bedroom."

Before she could answer she felt the release looming. She wrapped a hand around his neck and dragged him into a kiss to mute the sound. John's body and the cold ceramic against her ass were the only things keeping her upright as her knees buckled from the force of it. White light bloomed behind her eyelids and she trembled when John drew his hand away.

Tingling from head to toes, dizzy and disbelieving, she nuzzled John's neck, mouthing kisses along the sharp cord of his throat. He whimpered. "Christ, Elizabeth." She could feel him moving and managed to rally enough energy to pull back and help him undo his belt and pants and get them open.

Together they shoved his pants and underwear out of the way, but Elizabeth circumvented him and put her own hand on his erection. He made a low sound and buried his face against her shoulder, his hands braced against the sink behind her. His hips jerked into her touch, pressing her back against the counter over and over. She craned her head, using her teeth to tease his ear, her other hand playing with the soft hair at the nape of his neck, underneath the bandanna he was still wearing.

She felt him bite down on her shoulder and then he let out the guttural noise that she loved so much.

They both tended to enjoy lingering in the afterglow, but every second increased the chances that someone would catch them having sex in the bathroom in the middle of the party, and if Janet heard or had any idea, they'd never hear the end of it. Elizabeth fumbled behind her and found the tissue box and cleaned them both up. They redressed, stealing amused, "I can't believe we just did that" glances at each other.

John leaned in for one more kiss before they unlocked the door. He looked down at her with an awed expression. "I love you," he said quietly, causing the familiar glow of warmth to wash through her. "Besides that, you are the best-"

She laughed at that, kissing him fleetingly before setting her hat back on her head. "I know. You can remind me of that again later."

He tugged on the end of the scarf around her waist, a knowing look in his eye. "It's probably just as well we didn't try for the bedroom," he observed as she unlocked the door and peeked into the hallway.

"Because having sex on Janet's bed would've scarred us both for life, not to mention Janet?"

The hallway was clear, but John shook his head. "Nope."

"John, I hope you aren't suggesting Cassie's room."

"No!" He shot her a look. "I was just thinking, it's going to take a while for me to get those boots off you." He gave the bootlaces an appreciative glance. "We definitely would've been caught."

It took all her willpower not to suggest they go home immediately.

***

That night, they discovered the scarf was perfect for tying things to the headboard of their bed without leaving unseemly marks around wrists. And Elizabeth learned that John could take a torturously long time to get her boots unlaced.

***

If Elizabeth was honest with herself, she'd always felt a pang of nostalgia on Halloween. She remembered being a kid and waiting to go trick or treating. Those hours between getting home from school and it getting dark out had always felt interminable. She remembered waiting to eat dinner and watching out the window, staring at the street as the streetlights came on, watching for other people to start appearing on the sidewalks, nearly bouncing with energy until it was time to go.

"Plus, when you were really little, there'd always be donuts and apple cider at school during the day," John said as they sat on the porch after dinner. "You'd already be hopping from the sugar rush there, and then you get even more candy that night."

She grinned. Their jack o'lanterns were lit, sitting like guardians on either side of the three steps up onto the porch. John had put an orange bulb into the porch light. Sedge was securely locked in the house, and John had brought his portable stereo out and hidden it in the corner, playing that ridiculous CD of sounds. The bowl of candy was between them. John was still decked out in pirate costume, although he was wearing a shirt under the pirate shirt to keep warm. She had a heavy black turtleneck and leggings on under her black skirt. At least the pointed hat kept her head warm.

"And there was always that person in the neighborhood who gave out gum," she added.

"Or money," John nodded. "Which wasn't that bad, but it was Halloween!"

The sun was down and the streetlights were on, even though it was still early. The first people were appearing on the sidewalks, parents with the "little kids" who had to be home and in bed earlier. The neighborhood they lived in had a lot of families. Elizabeth recognized the man from two houses down, walking with his two small children up the driveway of the house next door.

She glanced at John. He was fidgeting with the bandanna on his head. It occurred to her that in a few years, one of them could be sitting here with the candy while the other one took a little girl or boy with dark hair and big green eyes out into the neighborhood for the first time. The image was so clear in her mind it was a little startling. Her heart beat a bit faster and her face grew warm.

It was a heady thought, wonderful and slightly scary all at once.

Three people headed up the driveway and she turned her attention to watch the two small figures climb up the steps carefully. She caught their father - she thought his name was Tim - smiling as the kids approached shyly with their plastic pumpkins clutched in their hands. "Trick or treat!" they said in quavering, high-pitched voices.

The little girl, who was four or five, was dressed as a princess, complete with a crown. The boy, who looked younger, was a pirate.

John was grinning as he reached for the candy. The little girl said thank you but the little boy scrunched up his face and said to John seriously, "You're a pirate too!"

"Yes, I am," John held out the candy bar but didn't drop it. "Do you know what pirates say to each other?" The boy looked puzzled and glanced back at his father for reassurance. Tim nodded encouragingly but the boy couldn't seem to think of anything. John leaned in closer. "They say, 'Ahoy, matey!'"

"Ahoy madey!" the boy bellowed.

John smothered a laugh. "Close enough."

He dropped the candy and the little boy darted off but Tim put a hand out. "Ryan, what do you say?"

"Tank you!"

Elizabeth waved and the little family walked back down the driveway. She fished something out of the candy bowl. "John?"

"Hmm?"

She tossed a Milky Way bar into his lap. "Happy Halloween."

He grabbed a Snickers bar and held it out by the edge of the wrapper, like it was contagious. She laughed. "Happy Halloween, Elizabeth."


End file.
